IHT Corrects Erroneous Headline on Building Materials for Gaza

Following communication with CAMERA staff, the International Herald Tribune has corrected a headline which had erroneously stated that Israel allowed building materials to enter Gaza for the first time in five years. The headline was first noted on our Snapshots blog earlier this week, and the AP also issued a clarification after correspondence with CAMERA.

As explained detailed in CAMERA’s Web site on Tuesday, the ban applied only to the private sector. According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 40,041 truckloads of building material crossed from Israel to Gaza since June 2010. The International Herald Tribune error and correction follow:

Error (International Herald Tribune, headline, 12/31/12): Israel allows building materials into Gaza for first time in 5 years

Correction (1/3/13): The headline accompanying an article Monday about Israel’s decision to allow building materials into Gaza said incorrectly that recent shipments were the first in five years. They were the first for use by the private sector in that period; Israel had strictly controlled the entry of building materials, limiting them in recent years to internationally supervised projects.

CAMERA commends the IHT for its prompt correction, and continues to call on other media outlets which have yet to correct the identical error to do so immediately. They include National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” as well as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Daily Herald, Newsday, Detroit Free Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Star-Ledgar (Newark, N.J.), and the Virginian Pilot, among others which published AP’s erroneous initial report but then subsequently ignored the AP clarification.